%20Adriano%20Heitman.jpg "Martha Argerich (Photo: Adriano Heitman)") |
| Martha Argerich (Photo: Adriano Heitman) |
B:Music is the charity responsible for Birmingham Symphony Hall, home of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), and Town Hall, the city’s most iconic historic building, each year welcoming more than 500,000 visitors to enjoy our programme of over 700 concerts featuring local, regional and international music. Alongside a wide-ranging programme of concerts, B:Music presents a classical season that complements the home-grown CBSO with international ensembles.
B:Music’s 2026/27 classical season opens with a bang as Martha Argerich is the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Lahav Shani, in a programme that includes music by Louise Farrenc and Brahms.
The NDR Radiophilharmonic Hannover, in their first visit to Birmingham since 2017, perform Beethoven and Brahms under conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky. British conductor Duncan Ward [who I chatted to in 2023, see my interview] brings the Flanders Symphony Orchestra in a programme that includes French violinist Alexandra Soumm in RVW’s The Lark Ascending and Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 5 Turkish. There are more British visitors in the form of the Philharmonia Orchestra under conductor Marin Alsop performing Bernstein’s Serenade with violinist Esther Yoo and Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. Aziz Shokhakimov conducts the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra in Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns, and Rachmaninov, with violinist Maria Ioudenitch as soloist.
Ben Palmer brings his Covent Garden Sinfonia to celebrate the centenary of Fritz Lang’s iconic Metropolis with a screening of the film with a live performance of the newly restored orchestral version of Gottfried Huppertz’s original symphonic score. Still on a film theme, the Taiwan Philharmonic is conducted by Jun Märkl in a programme that combines John Williams’ music for Star Wars with music from Holst’s The Planets and Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra.
British conductor Alpesh Chauhan is music director of Birmingham Opera Company and principal guest conductor with Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and he brings the latter in a programme of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Brahms’s Violin Concerto with soloist Hyeyoon Park. There is more local talent when Jeffrey Skidmore conducts Birmingham-based ensemble Ex Cathedra Choir, Baroque Orchestra & Academy of Vocal Music in Bach’s St Matthew Passion.
The season concludes with a pair of blockbusters. Opera North, conductor Anthony Hermus, brings their concert staging of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with John Matthew Myers and Wendy Bryn Harmer, then there is a visit from The Hallé, conductor Kahchun Wong in Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast.
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| Birmingham Town Hall |
A series of six Sunday morning recitals the Jennifer Blackwell Performance Space is launched by soprano Camila Mandillo in Monteverdi, Mozart, Poulenc, Ligeti and Bushra El-Turk. Mandillo has been selected as a Rising Star by ECHO (the European Concert Hall Organisation). The other Sunday morning recitals, all ECHO Rising Stars feature cellist Petar Pejčić, the Javus Quartet, the Amelio Trio, soprano Elionor Martínez and violinist Ava Bahari.
Thomas Trotter celebrates the 900th recital of his tenure as Birmingham City Organist as part of his programme of lunchtime concerts at Symphony Hall and Town Hall, giving you a chance to compare and contrast the 2001 Klais organ in Symphony Hall with the historic William Hill organ in Town Hall which dates back to the 1830s with a rebuilding in the 1890s and a more recent 1983 reconstruction by Mander to return it to its 1890 state. As part of the more recent work, bells were added to the organ. The original specification when the organ was built by William Hill included a set of bells, but no record remains as to what form these bells took. A set of handbells were obtained from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and these were set in a frame with hammers activated by electric solenoids with dampers for the larger bells, which have been well received.
Full details from the B:Classical 2026/27 webpages.
%20Craig%20Fuller.jpg?w=670&resize=670,446&ssl=1 "A lot more emotional resonance than you might expect: Jonathan Dove & Alasdair Middleton's Itch return to Opera Holland Park shows it is more than a rattling good yarn")
